It was positioned as a probable competitor to Apple's MacBook and iPad Pro, as well as Microsoft's Surface Pro: It would start at about $799 (£620), have a 12.3-inch high-resolution display, a stylus, either 32GB or 128GB of storage, and 8GB or 16GB of RAM, and even a dedicated "tablet mode."

Back then, Android Police reported that Bison would launch some time in Q3 2017. The timing is coincidental, but it's possible the upcoming Chromebook Pixel might be a completely different device to the one originally rumoured.

One major difference is that the new Chromebook Pixel will apparently run on Chrome OS, whereas Google has never announced Andromeda.

And while the rumoured launch windows for Bison and the new Chromebook Pixel match up, Google is actually following the Pixel's own release schedule. The first Chromebook Pixel was released in 2013, and then its successor followed two years later.

In addition to that, several things have changed at Google over the past year, which might have morphed what was once envisioned as Bison into a simpler, more streamlined successor to an existing lineup of devices.

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